Ben Norton Profile picture
Sep 28, 2021 5 tweets 2 min read Read on X
At the UN, Nicaragua said the pandemic exposes "the irrational & oppressive system of capitalist exploitation"

Rich imperialist countries hoard vaccines while building more weapons. "It's part of the heartless creation of savage capitalism, an insatiable desire for accumulation"
Nicaragua condemned the constant US meddling in its internal affairs, noting that the imperial attacks hinder its fight against poverty, "which is the world's cruelest pandemic."

"It is not the US empire that elects the government of Nicaragua; it is the Nicaraguan people."
At the UN, Nicaragua condemned the illegal, "savage" sanctions the US and EU have imposed worldwide.

"In times of pandemic, these measures become a crime against humanity."

Nicaragua reaffirmed "our solidarity with the more than 2 billion people who suffer from these sanctions"
Nicaragua called at the UN General Assembly for reparations to combat climate change.

It stressed that rich imperialist countries have caused the majority of environmental damage, and thus must contribute much more.

"The biggest emitters have that historic responsibility"
Nicaragua's Sandinista government used its platform at the United Nations to call for an end to US and British colonialism in Latin America and the decolonization of Puerto Rico.

Cuba also joined Nicaragua in calling for Puerto Rico's independence and freedom.

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More from @BenjaminNorton

Jul 23
Crucial point by prominent Palestinian scholar Joseph Massad:
"The claim that the Israel lobby controls US policy in the Middle East amounts to absolving the US of responsibility for its imperialist policies".

Israel is an extension of US imperialism.
middleeasteye.net/big-story/why-…
The US empire has always violently opposed anti-colonial struggles.

The US gov't has been an "implacable enemy of all national liberation groups".

"Why the US would then support Palestinian national liberation absent the Israel lobby is something this argument fails to address" Image
Blaming the Israel lobby for the Iraq War is absurd

The invasion of Iraq follows a consistent US imperial policy since WWII of overthrowing Third World states that control their national resources, land, oil, minerals

See: Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, Venezuela & Iran today

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Read 4 tweets
Jul 16
Trump's VP pick JD Vance was created in a political petri dish by billionaire oligarch Peter Thiel.

"PayPal Mafia Don" Thiel founded CIA/Pentagon-backed mass surveillance corporation Palantir.

He was an FBI informant and got his start at CIA-linked law firm Sullivan & Cromwell.
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Far-right billionaire oligarch Peter Thiel, a CIA-linked FBI informant who has funded Donald Trump and his "MAGA" allies, also funded a spy company that hacked WhatsApp.
forbes.com/sites/thomasbr…
Libertarianism nearly always turns into fascism, because libertarians and fascists value private property and capital above human life.

Libertarians eventually realize that, to save capitalism, democracy must be destroyed. Pinochet is the textbook example
Read 4 tweets
Jul 14
US "democracy" is nothing but political violence!

All US presidents for decades (both Republicans & Democrats) have waged nonstop war, in Korea, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, etc.

The US has killed MILLIONS. But I guess foreign lives don't matter.



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"There is absolutely no place for political violence in oUr deMoCrAcy" Image
Every single US president is an imperialist sociopath with zero concern for lives outside of the US (and little for people in the US too). They are all guilty of war crimes, and have killed MILLIONS of people in recent decades.

Seeing them condemn "political violence" is surreal
Read 4 tweets
Jun 30
In this important speech, the director of the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University notes:
-US-China "competition" is "ideological"
-The US wants to subordinate China
-"The socialist path led by the CPC is the unchangeable path for China"
eastisread.com/p/yao-yang-on-…
This influential Chinese economist explains how the Reform and Opening Up started by Deng was pivotal to develop the productive forces, after a time of destructive ultra-leftism. But China went too far to the right by the 2000s, so it's shifting left again
eastisread.com/p/yao-yang-on-…
"Excessive financialization hollows out real industries". China is countering this by using state-owned bank lending to "prioritize manufacturing and high-tech industries".

"The goal of [China's] new era is high-level socialism", better income distribution, and common prosperity
Read 4 tweets
Jun 17
China's economy is bigger than official GDP statistics indicate, because it uses a measurement system based on manufacturing production, under-counting services.

US GDP data, meanwhile, is distorted by expensive "services" like imputed rent and legal fees
asiatimes.com/2024/06/whats-…
"The affordability crisis in Western economies, the US in particular, is largely driven by inflation of necessary services – rent, healthcare, education, childcare – not by manufactured goods"

When those costs go up, US GDP goes up.

This is why "number go up" is not always good
This point is so crucial: Costs of healthcare, education, housing, and childcare have skyrocketed in the US, which makes GDP go up, but it also makes average people's standard of living worse, especially because real wages have not caught up.

So that GDP growth benefits the rich Image
Read 5 tweets
May 23
This chart shows why it's nonsense to talk about "inter-imperialist rivalry" in the 21st century. Monopoly finance capital is concentrated to an unprecedented degree.

There is one imperialist system, centered in the USA. Its heart is Wall Street. Its blood is the US dollar. Image
Capitalists from all over the world store their wealth largely in US dollar-dominated assets. The US hosts 60.5% of the total value of global stock markets. 40+% is owned by foreign investors.

The US government is dedicated to protecting the wealth of the global capitalist class Image
Imperialism is a system, not a mere set of policies. The US created the global financial system, based on its currency, centered in its capital markets

The most important mission of the 21st century is to replace it with a New International Economic Order
Read 4 tweets

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